


feels like i’m on a cloud

by jenuyu



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 19:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15250185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenuyu/pseuds/jenuyu
Summary: Donghyuck finds a balloon swaying on top of his desk when he gets to class on Monday. It’s a white balloon, one with a cartoonish bunny face drawn on it with a sharpie, and there’s a small note tied to the piece of candy.He picks it up, frowning. This handwriting’s way too messy, too much like chicken scratch, and he ends up having to squint at the piece of paper to read it properly.one: youre cute :D





	feels like i’m on a cloud

**Author's Note:**

> [[screams into the void]](https://twitter.com/watermelonmark/status/1016937758063902720)

Donghyuck finds a balloon swaying on top of his desk when he gets to class on Monday. It’s anchored down by a piece of candy, one of those bright pink strawberry ones that Jeno’s always lobbing at his head, and he sighs, turning to face the culprit.

“Jeno, don’t you have better things to do with your time than leave me balloons?”

Jeno blinks at him across the classroom, wide-eyed, and Jaemin, who’s draped over Jeno’s back like a particularly annoying cat, stifles a loud snort.

“It wasn’t me, I swear,” Jeno says, putting a hand over his heart. “I just got here, ask Jaemin.”

“He just got here,” Jaemin parrots, and Donghyuck narrows his eyes at the two of them. Jaemin isn’t even in their class, but he’s constantly hanging around Jeno. Had it not been for the fact that Jaemin is somehow, by some stroke of dumb luck or by merit of his face, their class president, Donghyuck would have already petitioned to ban him from their classroom forever.

“I don’t believe anything you say at all. That’s bullshit.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know what Jeno was up to before school started,” Jaemin says, batting his eyelashes at Donghyuck and curling his fingers around Jeno’s tie. Jeno just adjusts his collar, staring blankly out the window, and Donghyuck heaves a loud sigh, turning back to face the balloon on his desk. It’s a white balloon, one with a cartoonish bunny face drawn on it with a sharpie, and there’s a small note tied to the piece of candy.

He picks it up, frowning. It’s hard to read, and he supposes that it really was neither Jeno nor Jaemin who left it there. This handwriting’s way too messy, too much like chicken scratch, and he ends up having to squint at the piece of paper to read it properly.

_one: youre cute :D_

 

 

Donghyuck finds a balloon tied to the slats of his locker when he’s trying to get his history textbook. It’s a pink balloon with slanted eyes and a pink nose and whiskers this time, and there’s a piece of candy attached to it and a note that just says:

_two: ur smart >__< _

He purses his lips tight, and he scans the crowd around him, wondering if someone’s doing this as a prank, as a joke. No one could possibly spend this much time on a joke, right? Besides, no one’s looking back at him. The warning bell sounds, and Donghyuck leaps out of his thoughts.

Without thinking, he unties the balloon from his locker before tying it onto his wrist, dropping the piece of paper and the candy into his pocket. For safekeeping, he tells himself. Just for safekeeping.

 

 

The next one comes at lunch, a blue balloon with bubbles on it swaying just slightly in the breeze in the open air of the cafeteria. Donghyuck stops dead in his tracks when he sees it hovering above his and Jeno’s and Jaemin’s usual table, and Jaemin lets out a low whistle.

“Damn, son, someone’s obsessed with you. You catch any stalkers recently? Any cute boys trying to get at you? You can tell us anything.”

Dognhyuck ignores him, marching forward to yank the balloon off the table so he can see what the note says this time.

_three: kind n has a good voice n_n_

“You really don’t know who it is?” Jeno asks, leaning over Donghyuck’s shoulder to read it, and Donghyuck swats him away. He deals with enough of Jeno’s shit on a regular basis, he doesn’t need Jeno meddling in this— whatever the fuck this is.

“No idea,” Donghyuck says, slow. “No idea at all.”

 

 

Jaemin spots the next one first, a red balloon decorated to look like a strawberry perched insolently in front of their classroom door when they get back to class. Donghyuck’s fast, but Jaemin’s faster, and he holds the piece of paper up high enough that Donghyuck has to kick him in the shin to get him to let go of it. Jeno’s by his side in an instant, but instead of helping Jaemin up, he just points and cackles at him, and Donghyuck lets himself indulge in the pointing and cackling for three seconds.

Then he turns his attention to the scrap of paper.

_four: hey ur hair looks rly fluffy *A*_

Jaemin ruffles Donghyuck’s hair, expertly leaping away when Donghyuck turns to snap at him for taking a peek at the piece of paper. “You’re not fluffy at all. Too much product in here, you should consider taking better care of it.”

Donghyuck has four balloons now, and it’s just easier to tie them all to his left wrist so they won’t get lost or disappear off into the sky. He ignores the way Jeno snaps a photo of him tying the balloons to his wrist, presumably to send it to Jaemin, and he looks at the scraps of paper he’s collected so far.

He squints at them as if squinting at them will make them reveal the identity of the person who’d sent them to him, but then his eyes start to get all cross-eyed, and he stops.

He’ll figure it out soon enough.

 

 

Donghyuck finds another balloon tied to his locker again at the end of the day, after he’s finished up with club and pretty much everyone’s already left. It’s a green one, and it says _five: everyones blind to how cute u r!! :3c_ , and Donghyuck thanks every force out there for watching out for him, for making sure that Jeno and Jaemin aren’t around to see this because he’s starting to pink now, his face starting to warm up.

He slaps himself on the cheek, once, twice, and straightens up before tying the last balloon to his wrist along with the others.

He’s about to march through their school doors before something stops him in his tracks, a yellow balloon with a happy face on it, and it’s only sheer curiosity that propels him forward, that makes him close his fingers around the string and pick up the candy and piece of paper.

_six: i like u ^__^_

Donghyuck whirls around at the sound of footfalls behind him, and he’s standing face to face with a guy who looks suspiciously familiar. He’s tall, all tousled brown hair and a wide grin on his face, and Donghyuck racks his brain, trying to think of where he’s seen this guy before.

“You got them all?” The guy asks, and his eyes dart upward to Donghyuck’s balloons. “One, two, three, four, five, six. Yup.”

It’s his voice that does it. He remembers that voice moaning in abject horror and in absolute despair on one of the best days of Donghyuck’s life.

“Oh my god, I beat your ass so hard last month in the academic decathlon,” Donghyuck gasps. “What was your name again? Yuki? No, no, don’t tell me. Yuri?”

The guy’s smile doesn’t waver. “Haven’t you read the pieces of paper at all?”

“Of course I have,” Donghyuck scoffs. “What is this, a love confession? What’s your name? I swear, it’s on the tip of my tongue, but—”

“Maybe you should look at it again.”

Donghyuck looks down at the scraps of paper he’d pulled off of the candy and stuffed into his pocket. They’re a bit wrinkled now, a bit crumpled, but he can still unfold them.

_one: youre cute :D, two: ur smart >__<, three: kind n has a good voice n_n, four: hey ur hair looks rly fluffy *A*, five: everyones blind to how cute u r!! :3c, six: i like u ^__^_

Donghyuck stares at them, stares at them so hard until his eyes go blurry, and when the guy opens his mouth to give him a hint, it clicks.

“Yukhei,” Donghyuck says finally, and he looks up at the guy, who waves at him before tucking his hands into his pockets. The guy takes his hands out of his pockets, wringing his hands together. He’s clearly trying to settle on a comfortable position, clearly nervous.

“Hey there, Donghyuck. I was wondering when you’d get it.” Yukhei shrugs loosely. “It was just the first letter of each one, but maybe that was too easy for the champion.”

Donghyuck’s brain is spinning, working overtime, and he darts forward to poke a finger into Yukhei’s chest. “What’s your game here? Is this some kind of revenge for how badly you lost? Because it really wasn’t my fault you didn’t know the atomic number of Berkelium.”

“Just— oh my god, just read the last one,” Yukhei sighs, but it’s a warm sigh, a fond sigh, and Donghyuck wonders just why that sound makes the tips of his fingers all tingly. He sorts through the pieces of paper until he finds the sixth one.

_i like u ^__^_

Donghyuck stares up at Yukhei. “Is this a joke?”

“Would I buy six balloons and a pack of candy I don’t even like as a joke? By the way, if you really don’t know the answer, it’s no. So no, it’s not a joke. You wanna hang out sometime, grab some ice cream? Or we can go paintballing if you want.” Yukhei’s smile turns into something smaller, something softer. “Or, you know, anything. As long as it’s with you.”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck says, strangled, but only because he’s trying to hold his voice back from doing something absolutely _embarrassing_. He’s touched, honestly, at the gesture, and like hell he’s going to let an opportunity like this pass him by. It’s not every day a cute tall guy asks Donghyuck out in a way that’s probably copyrighted by some film studio. “You know what? Yeah. To everything. But especially the paintball bits.”

Yukhei wiggles his arms around before leaping forward and looping his absurdly long arms around Donghyuck in a hug, and Donghyuck lets himself melt. He loves hugs, he really does, and it feels fantastic to be wrapped in someone’s arms like this.

A sudden thought strikes him.

“Hey, how’d you know where I sit? And where my friends and I sit during lunch? And my locker? Oh my god, were you really stalking me? Because that’s kinda weird. No offense.”

“Oh, that,” Yukhei says, pulling back so he can look Donghyuck in the eyes. “I’m not a stalker, I swear. Your friends, the ones whose names both start with the letter J, I don’t remember which one is which anymore, they were the ones who came to me first. They told me you thought I was cute but that you’d never ask me out, so they helped me out with this. Yeah. So that happened. Oops, I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Uh, forget I ever said that.”

Donghyuck’s jaw falls open. He wishes he could say that he doesn’t remember ever saying that, but a memory rushes to the forefront of his mind, completely unbidden and completely soju-filled, of him leaning against Jeno’s shoulder and murmuring in his ear that “that one tall noodle boy is cute.” He can’t even blame anyone but himself for all of this, and he mourns the loss of his reputation for just a few seconds.

Instead, Donghyuck snaps his mouth closed with a very audible click before holding his right hand out to Yukhei.

Yukhei looks down at the proffered hand and looks back up at Donghyuck’s face before he takes Donghyuck’s hand in his. His hand is warm, and Donghyuck passes him the yellow balloon, the one with a sun drawn on it, to hold in his other hand.

“You’re pretty cute, you know that?” Donghyuck asks, stepping through the door fist, and Yukhei bumps him on the shoulder.

“Takes one to know one,” Yukhei says breezily, and Donghyuck’s heart feels just like the balloons he’s been carting around all day, light and airy and filled with something he can’t quite name yet.

In time, though. He’ll have plenty of time to figure it out.

**Author's Note:**

> wrings hands i wrote this so quickly i haven't even looked it over so i'm sorry if there are typos u_u but i........ i................ i truly have no words!!! Truly!!!!!!!!
> 
> also i listened to bubbly by colbie caillat while sprinting on this no regrets i'm totally showing my age now >___<
> 
> also jaemin's new hair LET US DISCUSS!!! (another time)


End file.
